Re: The World Cup Thread

They should draw lots to see which one of the three countries be exempt from qualifying. Having three teams automatically qualifying from CONCACAF, plus a couple of legitimately qualifying countries, is ridiculous. Imagine if GB were awarded the WC. Automatic qualification for England, Wales, Scotland & NI? I don't think so.

Re: The World Cup Thread

They should draw lots to see which one of the three countries be exempt from qualifying. Having three teams automatically qualifying from CONCACAF, plus a couple of legitimately qualifying countries, is ridiculous. Imagine if GB were awarded the WC. Automatic qualification for England, Wales, Scotland & NI? I don't think so.

Except that, as I said, the World Cup will be a 48 team format by then and CONCACAF will have 6 places. The US and Mexico would be virtually assured of qualification anyway with 6 places up for grabs, so the only team really benefiting from a host's bye is Canada.

Re: The World Cup Thread

48 teams? that will be f*cking excruciating. It'll be like the group stages of the Champions League with seeded teams being pitted against much smaller nations and utterly dull to watch. England will still struggle to qualify from the groups of course.

Re: The World Cup Thread

I've just realised why Gasman is upset about it; El Salvador are currently ranked 7th in CONCACAF, and Canada are 8th. (Mexico are 1st and US 3rd.) It's basically going to be Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Honduras fighting it out for the other three places.

Re: The World Cup Thread

Update: a bit of research tells me that FIFA will decide at a later date whether all three will automatically qualify. Although I imagine they will, on the basis that it's far more important to have the host nations in than it is teams like Honduras and El Salvador.